


Ephemeral, Volatile

by tauri



Category: Little Busters!
Genre: Community: fandomweekly, Gen, Refrain spoilers, Video Game Mechanics
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-08-06
Updated: 2016-08-06
Packaged: 2018-07-29 15:17:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 893
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7689655
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tauri/pseuds/tauri
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The school is full of students - for Kyousuke's purposes, it has to be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Ephemeral, Volatile

**Author's Note:**

> For challenge #005 at fandomweekly, 'Minor Characters'.

The crowd that gathered to watch Masato and Kengo fight - with balloons, cats, stationery and toys - was a usual occurrence. The whole scenario was; Kyousuke watched from the sidelines as Riki fretted between them, trying to calm them down - a losing battle, like usual. Kyousuke knew that he could involve himself, if required - but there was nothing out of the ordinary, here. Kengo and Masato would bicker and fight it out between them, come to some unbalanced truce, repeat the same thing tomorrow. He knew that as much as they did.

There were as many students in the cafeteria as one would expect from a school that size, of a lunchtime. And after the lunch period was finished, they would go back to class, to resume their afternoon studies. Riki would walk past students in the corridors, see students going to class, return to his own homeroom full of the students he was familiar with, day in, day out. What was more ordinary than a school full of students? Nobody would think anything of it. _That's the important part_.

Kyousuke would ask Masato, sometimes. " _Does he say anything?_ " (Masato would shake his head.) " _Do you think he ever notices?_ "

If Riki had ever noticed, he'd never said anything, not to Masato and not to Kyousuke. That didn't mean, of course, that he'd never _felt_ anything, but it was a reasonable deduction to assume that he'd never felt anything of the situation worth reporting to the others. If nothing else, Kyousuke trusted that Riki would come to them with any problems he had, no matter how small or how strange. Feelings of distance or dissociation - those were the sort of thing that would worry Riki the most. And yet, he talked and laughed alongside the others, participated in class, thought nothing of the everyday hustle and bustle of a school's inner workings.

Kyousuke watched Riki grow close to that Saigusa girl. The strength of her will was palpable, and her wish would be granted. Haruka clashed with Kanata, involved Riki in her concerns, trusted him with her worries. Kyousuke felt a mild impatience, but knew that it couldn't be helped - it was their combined strength that created this world where they could exist in the first place. Power enough to create a world. Such things happened for a purpose, and so did these girls find that purpose in this world. (He would see Suginami Mutsumi, sometimes. Rushing around, books clutched to her chest. He would walk by, barely glancing at her. _Not this time_.)

Haruka continued her strife with Kanata. Every once in a while, Sasami and Rin would disagree. Kengo had even been able to save Koshiki Miyuki. _It feels so real, doesn't it? It seems so real_.

(The illusion of time passed, and Haruka found her happiness. The world reset.)

\----

The Little Busters met on the baseball field, as was their habit. Komari sat with Kud and Mio beneath that tree, Kurugaya zipped back and forth so fast it was as if she had a magical power, and Riki tried his best to bat the ball that Rin threw for him. Haruka, too, was present; laughing and shouting as she always did, as was expected of her. _You're not here anymore though, are you?_

Kyousuke would talk to the group, encouraging them for their _surely inevitable_ baseball victory. Riki would laugh when Haruka made some strange comment, _as if nothing had changed_. ...That strength wasn't there anymore, though. Maybe Riki didn't feel it, but Kyousuke felt it. The group dynamic remained unchanged, but that power - even if only by a little - had dwindled.

 _So that's how this works_.

\----

The troubles of the girls needed actors in this play. The halls were still strictly monitored by Kanata, and Haruka would still run from her, but it was different, now. Riki would avoid the places Haruka would be found, and didn't know why; Kyousuke knew why, but could never tell. Riki met with the extended Saigusa-Futaki family. Met Midori. Met Komari's grandfather, true to memory and as real as life.

"... _Do you control them?_ " Masato had asked this, one time. Kyousuke had only laughed.

" _I'm not that powerful. But there's such thing as a global consciousness, don't you think? I think, out of anybody, we would know that more than anyone._ "

" _I don't really get it, but... if you say so!_ "

It seemed almost callous, treating people like props, _minor characters in the story of our lives_. Were they aware of this, of any of it? Kyousuke wasn't sure; there was only so far he could consider the existential implications, when his primary plans would have very real consequences for Riki, and for Rin. He could feel the strength of the world fluctuate; time was running out.

He stood outside of the main school building, the only figure present under the night sky. _And yet_ \--. There was something there, a will as strong as anything, _but disconnected_. Almost like an intruder. That blonde girl, _had she always been here?_ Kyousuke let out a short, sharp sigh into the night air. _I don't have time for this_.

' _Do you control them?_ '

The thought was tempting. The focus was Riki and Rin, and this was a _distraction_. Hopefully Riki wouldn't get distracted. _Hopefully_.

(Kyousuke brought the mask to his face, and headed into the school building.)


End file.
